


No Other Way

by AnonymousArchive



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Contemplative Stage, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Grief/Mourning, I Tried, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Loss, Lots of Thinking, Not A Fix-It, Not Beta Read, One Shot, POV Tony Stark, Pain, Short One Shot, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, Tony's Stuck On Titan, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 23:18:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18860968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonymousArchive/pseuds/AnonymousArchive
Summary: In the immediate moments after, when everything is lost.





	No Other Way

**Author's Note:**

> Can also be known as Tony Stark's suffering. Hope you... enjoy? That's probably not the right word for it.

Tony felt helpless, staring at the barren land that stretched beyond, just endless miles of sand and rubble. What once was probably a bustling planet full of life was now reduced to an abandoned wasteland, and the sinking feeling of dread was starting to settle in the pit of his stomach when he imagined his own Earth in the same damaged state.

Trying to ignore the painful bite of failure, he put his focus on the world around him, silently watching as the wind blew softly at the sand, disturbing some specks and making them dance in the air. The sight held an odd sense of peace, and he just couldn't wrap his head around it. How this planet seemed to carry on despite the lack of inhabitants. How tranquil it seemed to be despite the wreckage.

It can't be that easy to _move on_ , can it?

Without an answer, he kept watching, his gaze surveying the ever so still landscape before him, waiting for a sign of life anywhere here on Titan. He needed to find it, something to reassure him that there was still a way. That this wasn't the end, because they couldn't lose. They _couldn't_.

When he was met with the eerie silence, he couldn't help but feel like he'd failed.

Because they _did_ lose.

They lost everything.

Exhaustion taking his toll, Tony slumped onto the dirt, staring up at the blank sky. A sky that will continue to exist even if everyone else disintegrates into dust. A sky that will forever remind him that despite every loss, life continues forward.

He hurls a random rock towards it.

Ultimately, the action does nothing.

He hates that. He hates it all too much.

He finds himself staring at the dirt he sits on, scooping up some grains just to let it glide from his fingertips and back onto the ground. The thought of the dust settling in this very dirt he played with, mixing together as if it was not the ashes and remains of the fallen but instead just stray particles that had been wafting in the air, unnerved him to a degree. He could laugh at the fact that he was probably holding some of them right now as his hands delicately weave their way through the sand, but he had no energy for bitter emotions.

He had no energy left in him at all, at this point.

No more fight or spirit or drive. Just an empty shell of aching numbness.

He couldn't wrap his head around as to why he'd been kept alive at all. How he's still here despite coming so close to death for the nth time in his life was a miracle, and he loathed the fact that it had to be him. There was nothing he could promise that didn't end in failure. No salvation. No victory. Just countless losses and disappointments.

Yet somehow, after everything, he had to stay alive.

Stephen Strange made sure of that.

And he will never understand why.

The man promised never to let go of the Time Stone for him or for Peter, but when he was a centimeter away from his demise, suddenly that damn wizard begins to make a trade? What made him worth losing an infinity stone for? What did Strange see that he couldn't?

He saved him.

In exchange of what? Wiping out half the universe?

He didn't deserve that.

He could never deserve that. He failed them all. He wasn't the hero they needed. Not the hero Strange seemed to see.

He wanted to find the answer, know exactly why he had been spared. He wanted to bring Strange back into the damn land of the living just to figure the fuck out why he was still here.

Yet his last words were the only thing he had to cling onto. Those six words that will forever haunt him like a plague, echoing in the back of his mind.

"Tony, there was _no other way_."

**Author's Note:**

> Well there you go, a little short thing I wrote around 1 AM. Probably my shortest fic out there lmao.


End file.
